SOURCE: "José Garcia Villa: The Poetry of Calibration," in World Literature Written in English, Vol. 27, No. 2, Autumn, 1987, pp. 326-44.

In the following essay, Grow explores Villa's shortcomings and eccentricities as a poet, as well as his talents.

 Certainty and uncertainty
Two sides of the same flame.
["A Certain Morning Is"] 

Jose Garcia Villa is, without question, "the premier poet of the Philippines" [Leonard Casper, New Writing from the Philippines, 1966]. He has been praised by Filipino, American, and British critics for both short stories and poems since his mid-twenties. Teodoro Locsin, often comparing him favorably to Blake, Chatterton, Thompson, and Shelley, recommends a government sinecure for him [Philippines Free Press, January 18, 1947]. Amador T. Daguio's spontaneous letter to the editor, in response to Locsin's proposal, seconds Locsin's evaluation and his sinecure proposal [Philippines Free Press, February 22, 1947]. Locsin cites the laudatory notices of, among others, Conrad Aiken, Babette Deutsch, Marianne Moore...